The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford
January 21st 2008 06:33
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford
If you are a science fiction fan, you must know about Gollancz masterworks series whose titles include some of the best science fiction and fantasy books ever written. I don't like science fiction as a genre and I am just getting into fantasy, so catching up with this series has been a good way of familiarising myself with the genre's traditions.
Of the books, I've read so far, I loved The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers which is a delightful discovery. I had huge expectations for The Dragon Waiting By John Ford but I was hugely disappointed when I read it. I am plodding through some other books in the series.
The Dragon Waiting has a wonderful premise. The book's got a alternative history setup based on two premises : one, the Rome Empire, basically what we know as Byzantine Empire, has not fallen and two, Christianity wasn't succesful in wiping out the Pagans in Antiquity. With these two assumptions, the European history of Edward IV and the Medicis is recast.
I admit that the second premise is what tugged my attention. I loved it. I thought a contemporary novel with Paganism still ruling the West would be a great idea! The book does have some references to Mithraism but it never fully utilises the beauty of the premise.
As for the story, there is hardly any. Though it's called complex in the blurb, the book's plot is just a loose assembalge of personalities and scenes. The characters are all watery and none registers an impact. In one chapter,a young woman is betrayed, in the other she and a dozen others are crammed into a Agatha Christie style locked door mystery. You never get to know any of the charcters well, nor do you feel for any. As if that were not enough, the author rushes in the trite "Rebels against the Evil Empire" trope even before he has established the conflict. It's one thing to write in a "subversive" trope to service the plot, it's altogether different to depend on the trope to replace the plot and stand by itself. What's achieved is not subversion, it's boredom.
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